The University at Buffalo Department of Library and Information Studies – Official Student Blog

SLAB Visits Toronto Libraries, Lunches with a President

By Marisa Dabney

On Friday, October 24th, Special Libraries Association at Buffalo (formerly known as UB SLA, now known as SLAB) visited the CBC Broadcast Library and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto, Ontario. The group also had lunch with current SLA president, Stephen Abram.

At the CBC, SLAB was shown the reference library used by CBC news producers as well as the extensive visual library. The librarians leading the tour stressed that technology is ever changing and librarians should be constantly prepared to learn and create new databases systems. They should also have a strong foundation in cataloging theory.

The group also had lunch with Stephen Abram. He advised the group again of the importance of having a strong knowledge base in library and information science theory. He spoke about his current projects and trends in information science before leading the students through an underground labyrinth of tunnels and subways that ended at the University of Toronto campus.

Finally, at the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Room, the group was able to see and touch cuneiform, a Gutenberg dictionary, a first edition copy of Alice in Wonderland, and one of the first printed folios of the complete works of William Shakespeare. Students remarked that it was an amazing experience to look at these rare books and to learn how they are created and how they are maintained today.

Overall, the trip was a great experience for library school students to learn how to preserve the past and to tackle the future issues of library and information management.

In other SLAB news, we will be hosting a 23 Things type event on Saturday, November 8th from 1pm to 5pm in the Lab. 23 Things is an initiative started by Abram to educate librarians about web 2.0 technologies. We will be creating wikis, blogspaces and podcasts together.

SLAB will also be holding a meeting November 13th at 5pm, at an as yet undetermined location. Presidential and vice presidential nominations will be held and possibly voted upon.